Matthew 17:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After six days, Peter, James, and John were lifted up (Matt. 17:1). If another Gospel writer mentions eight days (Luke 9:28), this is not contradictory but rather complementary. One account considers both the day Jesus spoke and the day He ascended the mountain with His disciples, while the other focuses solely on the intervals between these days. Notice how impartial Matthew is in his account, not hiding those who were favored above him. John often provides similar insights, accurately reflecting the high praises given to Peter. All these holy figures consistently remained free from envy and self-importance.

He raises them to a high mountain, indicating that those who do not ascend are unworthy of such reflection. Christ does this particularly because He often performed His most significant miracles quietly, ensuring that, while many recognized Him as God, they would not perceive Him merely as a man or an apparition.

After six days, He took a select few and led them up the mountain; this mysteriously symbolizes six thousand years. Why did He not take the entire group of disciples? Among them was Judas, an outsider to the kingdom, deemed unworthy of being led there. However, he was not to be left behind, as he appeared to men as perfect due to the choice of Him who appointed him to this role. The Lord chose him while his hidden motives remained concealed. If his wrongdoing had been made clear, his fellow disciples would have recognized it. Yet the Lord was aware of his impending betrayal, which is why He said: ‘one of you will betray Me’ (Matt. 26:21), and upon declaring, “here he is” (cf. Matt. 26:25), He distanced him from the others. But why did He select him? Did He do so out of hatred?

After a period of six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John and led them to a high mountain, apart from the rest of the disciples. It has been previously discussed why Peter, James, and John are distinguished from the other followers in various gospel accounts, or what benefits they possess compared to the others. A question arises as to how He could have taken them aside to the mountain after six days, particularly when the evangelist Luke mentions an interval of eight days. This discrepancy is easily reconciled, as the six days refer specifically to whole days, while Luke includes both the first and the last days of the interval.

The Lord Himself spoke to the apostles, declaring, ‘These are not a few of those who stand here, who will not taste death until they see the Son of man coming in the glory of the Father’ (Matt. 26:28). Six days later, He led them to a high mountain where He was transfigured before them: ‘and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as snow’ (Matt. 17:1, 2). In this moment, He revealed a glimpse of His second coming. Although His divine essence remains beyond description—an attribute unique to God—He radiated divine glory and emitted light that surpassed human sight.

After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him to a solitary high mountain and was transformed before them, with His face shining like the sun and His garments becoming as white as light. The phrase "after six days" signifies this: those who, through the richness of their virtues and understanding, rise above all earthly things can ascend with Christ to the heights of divine knowledge. While Luke refers to eight days, which may seem contradictory to the accounts of other Gospels, this can be harmonized through both historical and contemplative interpretations.

Luke states that there were as many days as these words indicate and yet this does not present a contradiction. He encompasses both the day when Christ spoke to His disciples and the day when He took them, while Matthew focuses only on the days between these two events. Why did Christ choose only these three disciples on this occasion, and at various other times as we will see later? It is because they held a distinguished place among the other followers. Peter, because of his deep love stemming from his fervent belief; John, due to the special love Christ had for him, attributed to his remarkable virtues; and James, recognized for his suffering as he was persecuted by the Jews, culminating in Herod’s execution of him to gain favor with them.

In his reflection on the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Monk Gregory Sinait raises the question of why the Lord chose not to take all of His disciples to Mount Tabor. He explains that while the Apostles shared the same grace of the Holy Spirit, they differed in their mindset, faith, effort, and love. Although their message was uniform, the gifts they received varied. Thus, the Lord brought 'the elect' to the mountain. Bathed in His divine light, these 'elect' individuals exhibited distinct responses: one fell backward, while another collapsed face down on the ground. This portrayal by St. Gregory Sinait reflects a tradition that diverges somewhat from that of St. Gregory Palamas regarding the conduct of the Apostles at Tabor.

Where, then, did Christ undergo His transformation? It was on Mount Tabor, where He created a refuge from the chaos of the world. As He ascended with His disciples, He was gloriously transfigured, revealing to them the inherent radiance and light of divinity, with Moses and Elijah present as witnesses to this awe-inspiring mystery. He instructs us, through the chosen disciples, to refrain from seeking the unseen, so to speak, and those things that are beyond our understanding amid our trials. Instead, we are called to ascend this figurative mountain—symbolizing the pursuit of knowledge—through diligent effort, struggle, and ascetic endeavors, while also discarding the most significant carnal thoughts and fleeting impulses.

The Lord communicated to His followers that some present would not experience death but would witness the kingdom of God arriving with power (Mark 9:1). Following a period of six days, He took Peter, James, and John to the Mount of Tabor, where He radiated “like the sun, His garments became white as light” (Matthew 17:1-2). Overwhelmed by this brilliance, they could no longer look upon it and fell to the ground. Yet, true to His promise, they beheld the Kingdom of God, an ineffable Divine Light. The esteemed Fathers Gregory and Basil refer to this as the Godhead: “The Light is the manifested ... on the mountain the Godhead,” and “The goodness of the truly Mighty is the intelligible, and contemplated Godhead.” Basil the Great asserts that this Light reflects God's Goodness, which is only perceived by the saints through the Divine Spirit. He further states that Peter and the sons of Thunder glimpsed His Goodness on the mountain, which was more radiant than the sun, granted the privilege to witness a foreshadowing of His glorious return. Damascene the Theologian and John Chrysostom describe this Light as the natural radiance of the Godhead. The former writes that “the Son, being born of the Father, has in Himself a beginningless and natural radiance..., and the glory of the Godhead becomes also the glory of the body.” Chrysostom adds that “the Lord appeared on the mountain in His highest radiance, when the Godhead revealed His glory.” This Divine and ineffable Light—the Godhead, Kingdom of God, Goodness, and Sovereignty of God—offers a vision and joy to the saints throughout eternal ages, yet some, such as the Aquinians, dismiss it as merely an apparition. Those who defend the majesty of the Divine Light, recognizing God as timeless in both essence and activity, face slander from others. Let their shame grow, for while the Divine Light is eternal, God is still one in essence with both timeless essence and grace, which weaves with the radiance of His presence.

The Aquinians, in their fallacy, attempt to categorically define the Light that appeared on Tabor as merely an apparition or a created entity. Unmoved by repeated revelations, they faced written repudiation and anathema for their blasphemy. They reduce the Incarnate Lord to a creature's status, obscuring the singularity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the same Divine essence. Their flawed assertion that they honor the Godhead as non-eternal clearly implies a belief in dual deities within the Divine. They strive to surpass previous heretics in their impious declarations.

Furthermore, they attempt to disguise their transgressions by claiming the Light at Tabor, while incorporeal, signifies the essence of God. Such blasphemies intensify the horror of their claims, as they implicitly argue that if this Light was visible to the Apostles, then God's essence too must be visible to the fleshly eye. Yet, we must heed the declaration: "No one has been in 'the substance of the Lord'" (Jeremiah 23:18), and that no being has seen or comprehended God's nature—not even angels. The six-winged Cherubim, overwhelmed by His radiance, cover their faces. Since God’s immateriality has never been perceived, the Aquinians, by asserting the essence of this Light, inadvertently affirm its inaccessibility. Even the chosen Apostles could not fully witness it on the mount; thus, the Lord's promise holds true. Those who claim, “We have seen His glory ... being with Him on the holy mountain,” and “Peter and those with him ... awoke and saw His glory” (John 1:14; 2 Peter 1:18; Luke 9:32) are indeed authentic witnesses. John, particularly beloved by Christ, witnessed “the very naked Godhead of the Word” on the mountain. Consequently, the Lord's selected disciples genuinely beheld that incorporeal and Divine Radiance, despite God himself remaining concealed in His essential Hiddenness, a fact denied by Barlaam, Akindinus, and their followers.

When one claims that the Acindinians, affirming that this Light equates to God's essence, imply that essence becomes visible, it reveals their deception. They equivocate, suggesting that this Light renders God's essence observable, although it is rather God's creating activity that conveys visibility. Their assertions mirror the heresies of Eunomius, denying the distinction between essence and the creative expression of God. Such increases in their sacrilege yield no fruit for the faithful. Therefore, every godly individual should distance themselves from these teachings and avoid any communication with them, fleeing as one would from the threatening hydra.

If anyone claims that the light witnessed by the disciples on Tabor is transient, akin to fleeting visions, they clearly contradict the saints who describe it in their hymns as incomprehensible, non-temporal, eternal, and invisible—even to angels and men. They present it as the original, unchanging beauty and glory of God, the radiance of the Godhead. They assert that flesh also bears witness to this witnessing, as the divine glory of the Godhead becomes that of the body, although this glory remains hidden from those unable to apprehend what even angels themselves cannot see. The transformation does not derive from anything He did not take upon Himself, nor from a change into something new, but rather from what was revealed to the disciples, empowering them to perceive. He continued to be as He had always been, as He is the true Light, the splendor of glory that shines like the sun. Such an image is inherently limited, for creation cannot impart a flawless representation of the Uncreated.

The Evangelist Luke remarks that “when He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered” (Luke 9:29); Matthew speaks of this as “His face shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:2). This designation does not imply that the Light is merely physical, but emphasizes that Christ as God is analogous to the sun for those who are in the flesh. For those enriched by Divine blessings require no other illumination to comprehend the Godhead. This ineffable Light, revealed to the Apostles during prayer, echoes that communion with God brings forth vision and wisdom in everyone who diligently practices virtue and prayer. True beauty can only be perceived by the heart made pure; thus, those who witness its radiance share in its essence, much like Moses, whose face glowed from his encounters with God. Recall that Moses underwent transformation when he ascended the mountain and beheld God’s Glory. However, he did not initiate this transformation himself; rather, he was changed. Jesus Christ, as God, possesses this Light inherently. Hence, His illumination was intrinsic; no external prayer was required for Him to manifest His Divine Light in the flesh, but rather He demonstrated where this Light derives for God’s saints and how they may perceive it. It is written that the saints “shall shine like the sun” (Matthew 13:43), marking that those filled with God’s Light will behold the uniquely and incomprehensibly radiant Christ. We profess that He did not exhibit a new or different light during the Transfiguration but revealed what had always dwelled within him beneath the veil of His flesh; this Light, the Light of the Divine nature, is thus uncreated and Divine. Therefore, the consensus of the Theological Fathers is that Jesus Christ manifested this Light on the mountain, not through sensing or transforming into something different, but by unveiling to the disciples what was inherent in Him, allowing them to see as though from blindness.

Do you see how the naturally sighted are blind to this Light? It transcends mere sensory experience, and those who contemplated it were not merely seeing with carnal vision; they were transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit, changed in observing the majestic spectacle. The Word of God enveloped our perishability. The mother who conceived miraculously recognized her Son as God Incarnate, as did Simeon who held the Child in his arms, and the aged Anna, who approached in greeting: for Divine power illuminated through this union, revealing to those of pure heart. Why did the Lord select the eminent disciples and take them to the mountain before the Transfiguration? To reveal something profound and wondrous. What was the profound mystery in exposing merely physical light, already abundantly witnessed by all the Apostles? What necessity was there for their spiritual illumination to perceive this light if it were merely sensory and created? How could the glory of the Father and the Holy Spirit be confined to material light? Will Christ likewise return at the end of days in such a physical majesty, when all need for air and space will cease, and everything will yield to the reality of God being “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28)? If God is all, then He is also Light. Hence, the Light visible at Tabor can only be the Light of God! The Evangelist John, guided by Divine inspiration, states that the coming eternal city will not “require the sun or moon to shine on it: for the glory of God shall illuminate it, and the Lamb shall be its light” (Revelation 21:23). Is it not evident that it is the same Jesus, who was divinely transformed, whose flesh emitted light, revealing the Godhead’s Glory to those present? Similarly, the same Theologian declares that the inhabitants of that new city “shall not need the light of the sun: for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall have no night there” (Revelation 22:5). What indeed can this “other Light” be, which has “no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17)? What light can be enduringly immutable if not the Light of the Godhead? Furthermore, how were Moses and Elijah, especially Moses who appeared in spirit, illuminated, seen, and recognized, if not by the mysterious potency of the Divine Light that opened their spiritual perception? As recorded, “they appeared in Glory and spoke of His departure, which He would accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). How else could the Apostles identify those they had never encountered than through the enigmatic power of the Divine Light enlightening their understanding?

When you ask how this fleeting appearance, if it is indeed eternal, could be beholden to bodily sight, I will attempt to articulate the unfathomable—that the invisible can manifest as seen—as far as human capacity allows, knowing full well our inferiority compared to the Apostles who witnessed it. Although they described it using the familiar sounds and images of the corporeal world, they too did not perceive it as we might, yet they expressed experiences “which the eye has not seen nor the ear heard” (1 Corinthians 2:9) and of “things that are not lawful to be uttered” (2 Corinthians 12:4). How did they behold this transcendent glory? Those transformed by the Spirit’s power became spiritual beings, seeing the glory of the Spirit. They were “changed from flesh to spirit by the transformation of the senses wrought in them by the Spirit.” Listen to Paul: “These things which the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor the heart of man comprehended... God has revealed to us by His Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Hear too from the illustrious John: “The prophet’s hearing surpasses that of ordinary men; hence, we read: ‘Give me an ear to hear’ (Isaiah 50:4), which signifies impartation of the Spirit.” Furthermore, “After receiving the Spirit, the heart of the prophets was no longer that of a mere man, but of a spiritual being.” Damascene remarks, “His face shone like the sun” (Matthew 17:2) not because He lacked brightness compared to the sun, but in order for those gazing to perceive. “No one has seen God at any time.” All perception of God occurs in the Spirit; this is the “right hand of the Highest” (Psalm 76:11). This witness, although it participates in the light of that reality, is still surrounded by a veil of invisibility, for “neither his eye sees, nor his ear hears, nor does it ascend to the heart of man.” All perception—eye, ear, and heart, beneficia from the Spirit—the Holy Spirit enables them to perceive that which belongs to the Spirit.

Among the mountains of Palestine, none is as breathtaking as Mount Tabor. It rises solitary in the Esdralon Valley, situated a short distance from Nazareth, described by an ancient traveler as appearing 'like a stack in the midst of a field,' adorned with fragrant oak and pistachio groves, making it a splendid pedestal for the majesty of the Lord who was transfigured there. Jesus Christ arrived here after six days from the outskirts of Caesarea Philippi—following the discussions about the cross, as noted by St. Matthew, who counted only the full days in between, or eight days according to St. Luke, who included both the day of the conversation and the day of the Lord's transfiguration.

"After six days," following the Lord's earlier discourse. "Peter, James, John": these were the Lord's closest and most trusted disciples, chosen to witness remarkable events (Mark 14:33). "To a high mountain": although the Evangelists do not specify its name, early tradition consistently identifies it as Mount Tabor in Galilee, situated south of Nazareth in the scenic Jezreel Valley. Rising nearly 3,000 feet, this impressive mountain is adorned with lush vegetation, majestic oaks, and pistachio trees at its base and midsection. From its peak, one can enjoy stunning vistas of Lebanon and Antilebanon, Mount Carmel, the Golan Heights, and the Gilead Mountains.